CHANDIGARH: After 20 years, a Japanese boy named Rin Takahata traced his biological father Sukhpal Singh who lives in Amritsar, Punjab. The search was done as part of a college assignment in which he needed to complete his family tree.
On August 18, Rin, a 21-year-old student of Osaka University of Arts in Japan reached Amritsar with his father’s name, old address and photo which his mother Sachiye Takahata had. He had the old address of his father of Fategarh Churian road but managed to get the present address of Loharka Road and reached there to reunite with his father. Rin was just one-year-old, when his mother got separated from his father and after that they never had any sort of communication.
Due to a project based on his curriculum at Osaka University of Arts in Japan of making a family tree, he was able to tell the names of his family members whom he knew but not his father Sukhpal Singh. This prompted him to find out the whereabouts of his father as he had an old family picture and an address where his mother used to live in Amritsar for some time.
He searched and reached the old address on August 15, but Sukhpal had moved out from there. Then the locals helped him track his father as he had his old picture. It was on August 19, 'Raksha Bandhan', when Rin met his father and half-sister Avleen Kaur.
He had brought with him old family photographs of her mother and father Sukhpal carrying him when he was just one year old in Japan. Sukhpal Singh said that he could never imagine that such turn of events will come in his life.
He added that he is now married which is his second marriage with Gurvinderjit Kaur wherein they both share a daughter Avleen Kaur. Both his wife and daughter welcomed Rin into the family whole-heartedly. Singh further said that he spoke to Sachiye on the phone to know more about Rin's well-being. He took him to visit the Golden Temple and they also watched the Beating Retreat ceremony at the Attari border.
Narrating his past, Sukhpal said that he met Sachiye in Thailand airport and got married to her in 2002 in Japan and a year later Rin was born.
"We first met in the plane as she was travelling to India to see Agra and New Delhi and our seats in the plane were next to each other. I asked Sachiye to extend her tour to Amritsar after telling her about the Golden Temple."
"She immediately agreed and came to Amritsar and stayed with my family for over a fortnight. We visited the Red Fort and the Taj Mahal, besides the local tourist places, during her stay here. Then in 2002 we got married," he said.
Singh said that he had learnt Japanese and worked there, but we could not get along well and he returned to India. She came to see him along with Rin and took him back to Japan once again, but they could not get along and got a mutual divorce in 2004. He then returned to India in 2007 and remarried.
"I might go to Japan if God permits as now I have met my son. He will keep coming to India and he is returning on September 1 to 2 as his college starts on September 5," said Singh and added his first wife never married again.